Top Security Priorities for CIOs in 2014

CIOs will eliminate consumer-based file sync and share solutions in the workplace.

According to John Landy, chief security officer at Intralinks, CIOs will eliminate consumer-based file sync and share solutions in the workplace in favor of enterprise-grade alternatives. Employees have become increasingly self-sufficient and in control of their own IT provisioning, thanks to the many tools easily at their fingertips. They regularly use consumer-grade applications in the workplace because these applications are familiar and easy to use. Employees think they are being more efficient by not wasting time turning to IT for help and not wasting time struggling with unfamiliar applications. But Landy pointed out that for the CIO and the IT department, this is a nightmare for security. He said:

Consumer-grade sync and share solutions introduce unnecessary vulnerabilities into secure data exchange processes, as IT no longer has control over who is sharing what information with whom and on what device. Over the year ahead, CIOs will begin to realize that while consumer-based file share and collaboration solutions may be acceptable for sharing information within the corporate firewall, they are not nearly secure enough to facilitate collaboration beyond it.

CIOs will realize that enterprise-grade solutions are available that offer security and control without hindering employee productivity, and they’ll turn to those tools in 2014 to avoid data loss, compliance fines, and other severe consequences associated with negligence in content management.

The security experts have made their predictions for 2014. Now it is time for CIOs to make some tough decisions and establish security priorities for the coming year. Certainly many of those predictions will come into play. The predictions aren’t made in a vacuum; CIOs would be foolish not to consider the situations in which experts expect serious threats and risks.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) will continue to be a primary concern for CIOs in 2014. However, CIOs will have to pay attention to a few twists to the BYOD movement, like BYOI, or Bring Your Own Identity. Unfortunately, as Jake O’Donnell pointed out in a SearchConsumerization piece, the budget doesn’t necessarily meet the needs for mobile security, and that’s a problem that CIOs will have to work around.

CIOs will also turn more attention to the cloud, not just to determine how to make data in the cloud more secure but to see how the cloud plays a role in covering network security, as Philip Lieberman, CEO & Founder, Lieberman Software, stated, adding:

CIOs will have to reevaluate proposed security as a service being delivered via the cloud considering that hardware and software will no longer need to be purchased for deployment.

These issues are just the tip of the security iceberg. Overall, the primary challenge for CIOs will be to make sure everyone within the company is on board when it comes to security policy. It appears that 2014 will see a real shift in security concerns and in the way security will work. Education for everyone from the CEO down to every employee who has access to the corporate network will be a must.

Here are the top priorities that CIOs will be (or should be) focusing on in 2014.

To protect the company from those insiders who abuse their privileged access and from hackers with stolen credentials, many companies are turning to a privileged access management (PAM) solution. ... More >>

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